My Blogiversary Reflections...How I Create Clip Art...and a Freebie

Hi Teacher Friends!!
It has been nearly a year since I decided to begin blogging. Shortly thereafter I began posting free items on Teacher's Pay Teachers. It has been an adventure and big learning experience for me. I have made so many wonderful friends along the way... teachers that I never would have 'met' any other way.
I have learned a lot from this experience and it truly has made me a better teacher for my students. I have two things I am especially proud of. First is a childhood dream that is now a reality. When I was little I LOVED to draw. I actually initially went to college to become an art teacher. I realized after two years that this might not be the right path for me....although I still loved to draw.... and switched majors to early childhood education. Twenty plus years later this childhood love has become a reality for me as I create and sell my clip art, which I call 'Oodles of Doodles'.How do I make the clip art you might ask?
I began many months ago just drawing in ink and scanning the images into my computer. I then digitally colored the images using an art program. This was fun and exciting for me. I got great advice and support from my friend and artist Michelle from The 3AM Teacher. She is an amazing artist and wonderfully kind friend. She was and has always been a great cheerleader for me! It was such a thrill when people complimented my little doodles and wanted to use them in their teacher products. I continued along this learning process and watched every tutorial online that I could (and there are a lot!!). I took the next step a few months ago and purchased a Wacom board. I can best describe this as a board about the size of a mouse pad that you draw on with a special pen. Silly me thought this would be so easy.... I mean I already knew how to draw right? Oh my goodness..... I was SO wrong. I spent about a month just playing with it, trying to master drawing digitally. There are a variety of different boards available in different price ranges. If you are a beginner and interested in just trying it you can pick one up for less that $100. I bought mine at Best Buy. The board plugs into your computer via a USB plug. Through trial and error I figured it out...although early on I really wanted to give up and go back to paper, ha! I watched MORE tutorials and figured out how to add different effects. And now, I am selling my doodles pretty frequently. I LOVE opening Pinterest or TPT and seeing a fun teaching activity with MY artwork on it! It is still a slow process for me. Each little doodle might take me an hour or more to create, but I am enjoying the journey.!!

I enjoy creating and sharing activities on Teacher's Pay Teachers as well. This is another slow learning process. My advice to you is to create unique and carefully crafted activities and products for your own students. Don't try to copy the work of others.... find your niche, try it with your students and make it your own. Which leads me to the second thing I am proud of... my Kindergarten Homework Packets. I began creating them for my students as a method for parents to see on a daily basis what their children are working on and learning about in school. These have become very popular. It is amazing to me to think that I am touching so many young learners in classrooms across the US. Each packet takes me a LONG time to make....probably an hour or more per page. I wanted the packets to be fun for the children, and helpful to teachers and parents as we take this common core standards journey. Parents appreciate them as it gives them access to the skills their child is expected to master during the kindergarten year. I have created monthly packets for September thru January. I receive great feedback and so many kind words of thanks! This is my most recent packet....

So I will leave you with a little freebie I created with my clip art. It is a roll and cover. You can find it by following the link below the picture. There are a few other freebies in the same google file. If you take a copy I would love for you to leave a comment!!

Each monthly packet is divided into 4 weeks of homework. Although you could send it home as a monthly packet I send mine home weekly and have the children return it. I create activities that align with the common core standards. Each week there are activities for both math and language arts. They are activities that should take about 10-20 minutes and are very 'kid friendly'. The parents of my students love them and I have very positive feedback from other teachers using it with their students.I try to include 2 activities per page to save on printing costs. They take me an embarrassing long amount of time for me to make, but I feel they are well worth the effort. The January packet includes many of the skills they will be assessed on this quarter for their report cards.Hope that helps explain them! :)

Nancy, you are amazing and I love seeing your growth and your determination!! I had no idea you got the WACOM!! Silly girl, you better call me if you need some help..haha

I did giggle a little when you mentioned the difficulty of learning to draw digitally..hehe... I can totally relate! I now draw digitally like nothing, but it was quite a process to learn to draw on a tablet with your eyes on a screen..yikes. And I have the Extra Large Wacom.. and I had a hard time..I can't imagine what frustrations you might run into with such a small drawing area.. It does get easier... I find myself now trying to "undo" the last move while I am sketching on paper...HAHAHAHA!! I have become so accustomed to digital art, that I now prefer it.

Thank you so much for the sugar and I know this will be a great year for both of us....we won't have it any other way..haha

Love your roll and cover! I will use this next week as a center activity. Thanks for sharing how you create your clipart and glad to hear you are now getting to live both dreams....teaching and drawing!

Hi Traci I see I loaded the wrong file....missing a #3...silly me. I fixed it when I made it then put up the wrong one. Please download it again.You are SO right, I am totally doing everything I love!! I feel very lucky!!

This is my first visit to your blog and I love it. I just found your snowman game on Pinterest and plan on featuring tonight on my Friday Find. I can not wait to look at more of your clip art. I love the snowman they are so cute.

I am so glad I found this post. I have been trying to figure out how to make my passion of drawing into the clip art and stationary world. It is hard! I have my Wacom. It is so nice to hear that it is a learning process that takes time!